Chapter 2

The call for a hero

Five years has passed since that fateful incident, but now it all seemed to be a mere whisper of wind to the young Kirin, whose new purpose was to be an assistent to the floating sharpclaw shop keeper.

"Kirin, can you pass me that map on the shelf?" The sharpclaw spoke as he held out his paw for a map to be placed in his palm.

"Sure." Kirin quickly said as he leapt down from a shelf and pulled out a dusty map from under a bunch of other artifacts, handing it to the sharpclaw.

Kirin was five years old, he had purple rags for pants but no shirt, a wooden blade at his side when he got bored and had noting to do as well as learn to defend himself against thieves.

"Thanks Kirin, can you move those fire flies to the cold room, today's a special day, the cloud runners will be looking at our shop, I don't want any screw ups like last time." The shop keeper spoke as he dusted the map down and laid it on a pedestal.

"Hey that's because the light foots didn't like how I held the wooden blade."Kirin growled and crossed his arms with a scowl.

The shop keeper just rolled his eyes with a smile and went back to keeping everything tidy, while Kirin moved the fire flies to the cold room, where every other item was kept cool and wouldn't rot.

"I wonder what my life would be like if I could venture off on my own? I could be a great warrior, or a cunning thief, or a mystic magic controller, but I'm stuck here, as an assistent." Kirin thought as he pushed the jar of fireflies onto a shelf.

Kirin left the cold room and looked around the shop, many items of great importance lied inside this small sanctuary, he wanted to be free of it, he had grew tired of housing artifacts of old, he wanted action in his young life. The shop keeper looked down at Kirin, looking outside, seeing the world around him he couldn't travel.

"Kirin, I was going to wait until you were older, but as I watch you look out the window, I think you want to travel this world, so…I am ready to let you go." The sharpclaw said with a sigh, he smiled at Kirin, knowing that this is what the young vulpine wanted.

Kirin smiled and hugged the shop keeper, he could finally make something of his life, but he didn't know where to start, he didn't have a weapon, the ONE thing he would need to survive, or else he would die the minute he entered a fight.

"Uh, but I'm not fully equipped to even fight." Kirin explained to the sharpclaw.

The shop keeper picked up a long iron sword and placed it in Kirin's paws, it felt heavy in his grasp, the young vulpine almost fell to his knees when he caught the blade.

"Now you are Kirin."The sharpclaw chuckled and returned to his work, his back to Kirin, now he didn't need to care what happened to the cerulean vulpine.

Kirin stepped forward out of the entrance of the shop and looked at the world around him, it was full of life, waiting to be traveled by him and his dream to search for what he wants to become.

Night time

Kirin's face looked scared, he dreamt of his parents, his mother who's fur was soft as a cloud and beautiful as a aquamarine, and his father, who's bravery exceeded anyone with the mind to fight him. Kirin awoke quickly, he wiped his face of sweat, and let out a heavy sigh.

"Who are they? Why can't I stop thinking about them?…Why?" Kirin spoke to himself silently, he was never this confused over two foxes he never even seen or remembered, but he still continued to dream of them.

Kirin looked at his sword, it shimmered against the moon, and made him feel that he would be a galliant warrior, but then he might find duel-wielding great and result to being a master thief, but what about mind power, magic has it's advantages as well and being a famous mage could have its glory moments, Kirin held his head, so many choices floated around and he couldn't choose what to settle with. Kirin looked towards the plains, a dust cloud was formed around a Sharpclaw child, holding a circular scythe/spear, slaughtering many Sharp Claw soldiers that attacked him.

He looked at Kirin, signaling him to help him out, but Kirin had a bad feeling about this warrior, he didn't feel safe near him, but he had no choice, his mind told him not to help this strange sharpclaw child, but his heart told him it was the right thing to do and he needed great assistence. Kirin jumped up into the dust cloud and swung his blade down at the Sharpclaw soldiers, swinging his blade around like a mad man; the Sharpclaw child beside him also attacked like a mad man.

"You know my attack style?" Kirin said as he clashed his sword against a soldiers spiked club.

"Blue boy, thats no attack style, thats just simple berserk slashes."The sharpclaw child barked and swung his weapon widely, smashing many sharpclaw away from him and Kirin.

Kirin simply sighed and continued to slash, he thought he had been perfecting a sword style for those five years, but now that dream was crushed, it was simple berserk slashes.

"You must be a complete idiot blue boy."The sharpclaw child chuckled as he cleared the area in front of him again of sharpclaw soldiers.

"My name is Kirin."Kirin growled at him as he, too, cleared the area around him of sharpclaw soldiers.

"Well just call me Kang." The sharpclaw child spoke, slightly impressed at Kirin's power.

Kang swung his weapon around like a mad dog with its jaws, Kirin used his sword more slowly to block attacks and counter them, making it though that his guard is down, allowing his enemies to come into his attack zone, then quickly striking with a fatal blow.

"Now that's a sword style." Kang told the cerulean vulpine as he smashed a sharpclaws head with his weapon.

"It is?" Kirin asked as he kicked a sharpclaw away and stabbed another.

"Yup, known as the famous Hunters guard, a very deadly art used by assassins." Kang barked with glory as he slashed again, clearing the area in front of him of sharpclaw soldiers.

Kirin was using a style he didn't know about and it sounded great, using his opponents force against them, slowly they were destroying the soldiers numbers, one by one. Hours had pass by from the battle, Kang and Kirin had become victorious over the band of Sharpclaw soldiers.

"So Kirin, what Dinosaur might you be?" Kang asked as he rested his paws on the end of his weapon's shaft, his chin on top of his paws.

"I don't really think I am a dinosaur." Kirin replied and watched Kang as he kicked his weapon back up and walked over to a couple corpses.

Kang stabbed a dead sharpclaw and pulled his weapon out of it, letting it bleed for a moment until it finally stopped.

"Why did you do that?" Kirin weakly said as he covered his mouth, trying his best not to vomit.

"You got to make sure they're nice and dead." Kang laughed as he spun his weapon and impaled another corpse.

Kirin frowned, he didn't like the sound of "Nice and Dead", he didn't really trust Kang either, to tell the truth, he didn't like either of the two at all, if this sharpclaw was that strong and that deadly, what would be trustworthy about him?

"So you're the key?" Kang asked randomly as he spuns his weapon and shouldered it, his back to Kirin.

"Huh?" Kirin tilted his head with confusion, he had no clue what Kang was talking about.

"The key of freeing Syphon, bringer of destruction." Kang said with a sigh as he turned to Kirin.

"I don't understand." Kirin said as he shook his head, no matter how hard he tried he still didn't know what Kang was talking about.

Kang sighed with relief, he was somehow happy to hear that from Kirin's own words, but Kirin didn't understand the meaning "Key" in anyway.

"Well I am apart of a great tactical force that is going to fight against General Scales, a rebellion to be precise and to the point, I heard that the key of destruction was taken and brought here to sauria, but was lost again, so I decided to find the key first and make sure that Syphon would never awake, and voila, banished and hunted." Kang explained to him, watching Kirin's ear's lower in guilt.

"Sorry for causing such trouble." Kirin said, feeling like this was all his fault.

"Hey it's alright, I hated my village, all work and no fun, especially working for that cranky General scales." Kang quickly spoke, trying his best to cheer the vulpine up.

General scales echoed through Kirin's mind, he heard of that name long ago, he just couldn't remember where he heard it, Kirin looked like he was lost in a trance, searching his mind for the answer to this problem.

"Hey Kirin, helloooo, Kirin?" Kang waved his arms around, trying to bring Kirin back.

Kirin shook his head of the trance and looked at Kang.

"Thought I lost you for a moment." Kang said as he packed up his equipment.

"Oh its nothing, I just remember that name from somewhere." Kirin scratched his head, he tried his best to remember where exactly he heard the name.

"Everyone does, after that big imposter Krazoa was destroyed we lived in peace, but Scales didn't give up and decided to run the planet again, but he wanted revenge first, I don't know who, but it was defiantly the one who flew in a entity of shining rock, fire burst out the back of the beast and flew away into the sky, and I think he got is revenge a long time ago." Kang explained as he cleaned off his weapon of dirt and blood.

Kirin wondered about this suspicious "entity of shining rock", what was it, where did it come from, and who was the hero that tamed it? Kirin wanted to greatly know more of this odd "entity of shining rock".

"Lets get some rest, we'll be traveling to the temple of Cloud Runners." Kang spoke as he unrolled two leaf-made bed rolls and set up a fire, one for him and one for Kirin.

Before Kirin could ask a question, Kang was fast asleep; Kirin rolled over near the fire and closed his eyes, dreaming of his parents again; something odd happened in his dream, after looking closely, he saw a blade, a humongous blade, with a eye in the center, it was pouring flesh and blood, Kirin felt the hilt and gasped, reeling his paw away. The Blade was real!

Morning

Kirin felt a small push of Kang's foot on his back, he then looked at Kang with a sleep filled face, he was very tired, yet Kang was fully awake and live with energy and strength.

"Come on Kirin, I've been dragging you for hours, we're at the temple now get your lazy bum off the ground." Kang barked at the sleepy vulpine and dropped him, listening to Kirin's yelp of surprise and impact with the floor.

Kirin stood up and rubbed his eyes, the temple was beautiful in many ways, water falls glistening in the sunlight with small rainbows, voices of Cloud runner children all inside the temple walls, this was paradise to anyone searching for refuge.

"Come on Kirin, we have to obtain a weapon here, I think it's a bunch of nonsense, but legends say that a weapon of great weight and power lies inside, but only the descendents of the sword can wield its awesome power." Kang explained as he packed up Kirin's equipment, tossing the bag onto Kirin's lap.

"Descendents?" Kirin said with a grunt from the impact of his own equipment, finally realizing he packed much more then he needed, he sighed and stood up.

"Ones who had relatives able of wielding its power, over ninety-nine descendents died because they fought Syphon, locking him away with there final power, I think you might be the next descendent." Kang said as he walked beside Kirin towards the temple.

"Why would you say that?" Kirin asked confusingly.

"Because another part of our legend says that the key works for both sides of life, The key will free Syphon, and shall kill Syphon." Kang simply explained to the vulpine.

Kirin was called the key, so he must have been able to hold the blade, the description was similar to the one in his dream, maybe this blade was indeed real, but he had to find it first.